


Looking Glasses

by dasakuryo



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 02:12:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6034168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasakuryo/pseuds/dasakuryo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris practically drags Barry to buy a spare pair of glasses. For emergencies, she says. Barry is most reluctant to comply. Teasing is ensued, after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking Glasses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sendtherain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sendtherain/gifts), [Ishipit87](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishipit87/gifts).



"This is completely unnecessary," he jabbed, a steadiness to his voice that signalled both insistence and exasperation. or at least the sigh he let out at the end did.

 "We'll see about that," she replied, with a smile, disarranging his hat sideways with a swift movement of her hand. Instead of grunting or protest, he merely shrugged before putting the hat back in place with his free hand.

 The woman patted him on the arm, right above her own wrapped safely below the crook of his elbow. they were walking down the street, arms linked. The heels of iris boots tickled on the concrete side-walk, in sync with Barry's pacing. Barry trench-coat's lapel and collar flapped with the wind. The sunlight lit the dusk sky ablaze with a splash of gold and crimson, there was only an hour left until the yellow and red above gave entrance to the depth of blue... which meant that his shift had been shortened considerably by no other that detective West.

 His Iris, after all. He was still dazzled, couldn't yet wrap his head around that fact. He felt the ring on his finger with a brief brush of his thumb. He had to bit his lips to fight down the sudden pressing urge to grin. It was almost... unbelievable they were _married_. After all those years of being together... certainly this hadn't been on his mind when a very determined Iris West walked down the library aisle to his table and asked him out.

 Upon those memory he'd to hold back a chuckle. at the time Barry had felt very embarrassed and very _anxious_ . Of course he'd noticed her, she sat two rows in front of him on Introduction To Criminal Law, always wore her hair in a bun and had a tendency of twirling the coily strands behind her ears around her finger during the ten minute recess, as she filled in her notes. He guessed she might have noticed him stealing glances at her during class, or perhaps (as Iris always loved to point out) subtlety wasn't _precisely_ his forte and he'd been _staring_ the whole time, so it had become obvious for any creature with eyes that happened to be around him.

 That was, precisely, one of the very few matters in which they didn't agree see eye to eye.

 He glanced sideways to her. The golden sunlight stole bronze gleams of brightness from her skin. he felt a warmth spreading in his chest, staring at how beautiful she was, making a mental note of organizing his work around the lab better so _this_ could be his usual exit time, if only to bask in her beauty. He might had showed it somehow, perhaps sighed longingly, for iris head turned and stared at him, eyes curious as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. The corner of her lips curled upwards slightly.

 "Please, Barry, don't be difficult" the sweetness in the ring of her voice reminded him this wasn't a leisure stroll back home, "you need another pair... just to be safe."

 "I fail to see the point, Iris, I already have a pair of lab googles with magnifying glasses and all," he repeated the same argument he'd used when she brought up the subject a week ago over breakfast, right after upon waking up he shoved his glasses off the night-stand, as he tried to set off the beeping ear piercing alarm. Iris was of the idea he could have broken them.

 "Barry, you can't go around wearing your _lab safety googles_ ," she reminded him with the tone she would use to scold a child. He frowned.

 "Naturally, that's what my glasses are for," he fought back, stubbornly.

 Iris sighed, there had been a reminiscence of a laugh at the start in her hushed breath. she shook her head and stroke his arm over his jacket.

 "Which is why you do need a spare for any emergencies," she retorted, an edge of amusement to her voice, "isn't that what you scientists do best? precaution?" she bumped casually into his side. a little too enthusiastic for his taste, so he almost lost his balance in a rather ungraceful manner hadn't been for the fact their arms were still linked.

 He arranged his hat and pulled his glasses up on his nose bridge, then scraped his neck, and looking down answered in a tiny voice, "okay but just one pair, we can't afford to-"

 "Stop worrying about that, Barry-"

 "I feel bad about-"

 "Don't," she silenced him raising a finger, she took a deep breath before adding, "that's my father talking, not you. and I've told you I don't have any regrets about it, I got to be what I've always dreamed of, without dad pressuring me to do anything so," she leaned on him and caressed his arm, "Bartholomew, please stop beating yourself up about it, would you?"

 "I'll try."

 They entered the optician's shop. Before Barry could say anything, Iris had already asked of the shop assistant to bring some frames for them to look. Barry tried to convince her to just get another pair of glasses with the same frame he already had, but Iris would have none of that.

 "You can switch and combine them with your outfits," she said, smiling excitedly.

 "I don't see how glasses are a fashion statement."

 Iris rolled her eyes. And so when the woman came back with a stock of various frames, the try test began. Iris would comment on how the many frames he tried on fit to his face, pensive frown on her face, careful touches trying to arrange the frame on his nose bridge and behind his ears -that involved tilting them to rest correctly on his face, he had a tendency to just place them with an angle. Those intervention granted him pokes on the tip of his nose and swift, quick kisses on his lips whenever he, out of frustration, started whispering under his breath. Barry would suddenly go still, he hadn't get used to such public displays of affection -or rather, he was too used to them having to conceal them at the station, empty corridors were a blessing by the way, that such sudden carelessness startled him.

 "This is just pointless," he whispered, after having tried on ten different ones and having met dissatisfaction. On both parts. Truth to be told, he wasn't particularly sure about the frames even though he could see what they looked liked from up-close, and Iris didn't seem to find any particularly fitting. "Why don't we just follow my suggestion?"

 Iris pinched at his cheek, viciously. He heard the ring of her giggle as he frowned, "don't be like that, where is your sense of adventure?"

 "As standard, I prefer to play it safe,"

 "Oh, really?" she wiggled her eyebrows at him, "didn't seem to me last night, y'know, when you were all-"

 "Iris!", he suddenly felt very hot and short of breath and definitely not because of his wollen knitted vest, "do you have to bring it up here?"

 She scanned him head to toe, why her lips have curled into a smile eluded him completely.

 "I dunno, can you?," she shot him a very not-innocent-at-all and very suggestive look as that mischievous smile of hers played on her lips.

 His face must have went through every possible shade or red distinguishable to the human eye. he coughed, nearly choking with his own breath.

 " _Iris!_ " he breathed, most frantically.

 She had the _nerve_ to giggle to his face. She even kept smiling at his frown of disapproval. With a flourish of her hand, handed him yet another pair of glasses he hadn't tried on. Gladly to be able to divert his mind from the embarrassment, he inspected the glasses in question.

 The lenses size make up for a considerably wide range of vision, suitable for more than a mere occasional paper or document reading and more appropriate for all-day wearing. He took off his glasses, suddenly very conscious and uncomfortable about the blurriness.

 "Well, they look nice on you," her voice went up and he could almost she her doing that little shrug, "how do you feel them, baby?"

 "They seem... comfortable, I guess," the frame didn't slid down his nose bridge and the side pieces fit nicely on the back of his ears.

 It took a few other frustrating try ons before Barry settled in for those, letting out a satisfied sight that finally he was over with the whole frustrating affair. He kept blinking as the optician measured the prescribed magnification of his, soon to be, old glasses.

 "Should be ready within a week, don't worry about picking them up, we'll email them to your address," the optician said, sealing the envelope with a quick swift of his hand.

 

* * *

 

"I think they look cute on you," Iris said, kissing him on the cheek and wrapping her arms around his waist, "your eyes stand out more," she provided, cheerful.

 Barry squinted at the image on the mirror. It would take some time to grow accustomed to them, he presumed. after all, he'd got too used to the roundness of his previous frame. the new one was not all too different, instead of ending in an oval-like shape, the crystal looked more like rectangles with rounded edges. It brought about the angularity of his features, which the old one masked.

 "You think?"

 "Mmmh, my husband looks very very good in glasses," she stepped on her toes to hum in his ear, then pressed a kiss to his jawline, "and also very very _sexy_."

 And with that, she pulled him down for a kiss.

  


“Doctor, are you aware your shift started an hour ago?” the captain asked most casually, but a disapproving glare was directed at him.

 “Yeah, I'm sorry... I got caught up on the way here,” his explanation was almost a blabber.

 “May I suggest you take another less _hectic_ path tomorrow,” the captain prompted, arching an eyebrow, “you need to run a handful of tests for the McMillan case, and I want them done by today. Perhaps you can get advantage of the extra hour you may have to stay,” and that had certainly not been a suggestion.

 “Of course,” he turned on his spot to go up the stairs, when he felt a pat on his shoulder.

 “Hi there, Allen! What's with the scarf? Are you sick?” Floyd Lawton asked, his face beaming with an edge of amusement, “make sure you don't sneeze over the samples, pal.”

 Barry let out a dry laugh and grunted under his breath. He loosen it a bit around his neck, but his skin still felt itchy and the warmth was making him uncomfortable. If only he could take it off. He trudged upstairs.

 Iris' gaze followed him until he took the turn and disappeared. Oh, he wouldn't be able to take that scarf off, that much she was sure. She bit her lips to stop a mischievous, satisfied smile from showing, and got back to her paperwork.

**Author's Note:**

> So... this happened thanks to a tumblr comment thread, as per usual :) I want to give special thanks to boniferhasty, ishipit87, and also thanks to amuzed1 (I blame the last few paragraphs on her and only her, fyi). And who does not agree that we should keep E2 Barry, glasses included? ;)


End file.
